


The Sleeping Prince

by Mastre



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Magic, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:40:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24134464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mastre/pseuds/Mastre
Summary: Haunted by a story nobody else remembers, Vide sets out to search for a man trapped in space and time.
Relationships: Loki (Marvel)/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 43
Kudos: 61





	1. The Voice

**Author's Note:**

> Vide's name is pronounced Vee-deh. It's a Swedish word for a wild plant.

_He's asleep, they said. A prince of another world, locked away forever in ours. In a palace of withered stone, guarded by spells, he sleeps while the time turns._

_He is beautiful, they said, but aren't they always? Princes in the tales are always pretty, whether they sleep or not._

_He was proud, they said. Too proud for his own good, too resistant, too keen on going his own way._

_Yet he yearns. For acceptance, for a glimpse of a love that sees his true colors._

_The memory is vague. She can no longer recall who they were who told her about the prince. She only remembers the words. Like they've always been there, like whispers in the wind. And nobody else remembers the story._

* * *

Something drove her into the forest over and over again, a restlessness she couldn't shake. 

It was like a voice calling, increasingly impatient, quiet yet impossible to ignore. She was no longer comfortable at home.

She had dreams in the night. Of a place in the woods, surrounded by cliffs. There was a building with empty floors and high windows, old yet somehow timeless. Of moonlight falling gently over a bed of stone, a man lying still upon it. His face unmoving, black eye-lashes resting against pale skin. There were dark curls falling back over his shoulders, hands resting on his abdomen with fingers laced together.

_"Find me!"_

Vide had always been the outsider, the dreamer, the one who didn’t fit in. Once a relative had joked that she might be a changeling, a child replaced by the fairies when the mother wasn't looking.

They seemed to think she would grow out of it but she never really did. Even as an adult she was caught dreaming, longing, watching for something no one else could see. It was as if something, or someone, was calling her from afar.

Maybe the fairies wanted her back.

The voice in her dreams was dark and vibrating, filling her with a tingling warmth, and the man looked nothing like the men in the village with their heavy-set frames and sun-bleached hair. Neither did his clothes resemble theirs.

His were green and black, made with worn leather and pieces of engraved armor. Like a warrior. 

Or a prince.

_"Find me!"_

But how do you find someone who only exists in a story?

* * *

She went to the library and the local museum, searching for fairy tales of sleeping princes. There were none. On a whim, she asked about abandoned buildings in the woods and got told there were ruins in the mountains, near the old mines.

It was far and dangerous. The mines hadn't been used for many decades, the copper run out long before she was born. No roads led there anymore.

Yet...

_"I know you"_ , she thought as she left work and home behind, backpack loaded with food and printed maps. Nobody knew where she was going; it was no use explaining that she followed a voice from a dream. They would report her as missing and she would have to sort that out when she came back. If she came back.

* * *

Climbing over moss and stone, Vide reached the edge of the cliff. Vegetation had grown over the area for hundreds of years and she might very well be standing on what had once been a wall. Before her, the old burg rose with its weathered stone and broken towers, a flock of birds lifting dramatically from the remnants of its roof.

Slowly she looked around, shivering from the cold wind. Something about this place; the desolation, the loss of what once had been as it got buried under the passing of time... It haunted her badly.

The voice was silent.

_Am I getting close?_ she wondered, _or am I just making a fool of myself?_

She gathered herself and approached the walls, not letting the fear set in. Maybe she was just beginning to lose her grip on reality but since she was here... It couldn't hurt to take a look.

Carefully watching where she put her feet, she entered through an archway. Tiny drops of rain began to fall and she cursed silently: wet clothes were not something she wanted right now.

Once this had been a courtyard of sorts, frequented by horses, carriages, and people. She could easily imagine it, never being the one to lack in fantasy.

Moving on, she began to explore the inside parts of the ruins, seeking dry space while the rain passed. Thoughts and feelings flowed through her mind as the weight of history hung heavy in the walls around her. It was almost as if she could make out words from the past.

The further she went, the eerier the feeling became. 

And then... she entered the place from her dreams.

There was no moonlight but the bed of stone, a flat square-shaped rock, was there, displaying a young, dark-haired man with his hands resting on his abdomen. His eyes were closed and Vide cautiously approached, barely daring to breathe.

The sleeping prince from the story, from her dreams.

She wanted to touch him but hesitated. 

It seemed all too strange to be real but he was there, he was sleeping and he was beautiful.

Cautiously she touched his hair, letting her fingertips feel the softness of one of the long black curls falling over the stone next to his neck. It was real.

She dared to touch her fingers to his cheek, sensing the unnatural coldness of his pale skin. He wasn't breathing. She held her fingers to his lips, trying to sense something.

_Well, I'm not going to try and kiss him awake. This is not..._

A sense of urgency gripped her, a pull of sorts. Before she could think, she had placed her hand over his heart.

An odd swirly feeling rose through her arm and body. It was suddenly hard to breathe and she felt dizzy and nauseous. There were no words to describe the sensation except that it felt like something was sucking her very life-force out of her core.

The last thing she felt before passing out was a heartbeat beneath her hand.


	2. Questions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The prince is awake.

She woke up with an intense headache. A dull light was coming from somewhere, telling her it was still daytime, and something hard was under her back. She squinted and tried to make out the surroundings without aggravating the pain. She had heard of migraines but this was ridiculous.

There was movement nearby.

“You may not want to move just yet,” a dark, velvety voice said.

She startled at the sound and turned her head too fast, ending up wincing and feeling like her stomach was about to turn.

A large hand palmed her forehead, holding her still.

“It hurts,” she managed to get out. Even talking made it worse.

A coolness emanated from the hand, dispersing her pain until only a fragment remained.

“My sincere apologies. I needed to make use of your essence to revive my form. It’s remarkable that you survived.”

The hand lifted and she dared to slowly sit up.

The hardness she’d felt was the stone block the prince had rested on when she entered. The man himself was standing before her.

He was still pale but very much awake and breathing. His eyes were a light green that seemed to shift with the light and he looked even more imposing while standing up. Royal indeed.

“You tried to kill me?”

“Only if it had been necessary. I assure you, I wouldn’t have taken pleasure in such a sacrifice.”

She looked around. The eerie feeling was gone. Only cold, empty ruins were left, remnants of the past.

“You were in my dreams,” she said.

“I was reaching out.” He was looking at his hands, flexing his fingers. “You were the only one capable of feeling me, it seems.”

“Not sure if that’s a good thing,” she muttered while carefully setting her feet on the ground. There was a weakness throughout her body, like after a long-term sickness.

“It was urgent to have someone find me,” the man said. “Once you’re ready to walk, we will take our leave from here.”

“To where?”

“To the nearest area of civilization,” he said, now looking out through one of the broken windows. “It should be your village, yes?”

“If you can call that civilized,” she joked, “It’s three stores and a railway station.”

“Good enough,” the man said. “My name is Loki, by the way.”

Loki… It was an odd name and she knew exactly where she’d heard it before.

“You're not… _that_ Loki, are you?”

“If you’re referring to my last visit in this realm, what you’ve heard might be somewhat… lacking in nuance.”

He was now gingerly touching his neck as if expecting it to be sore. A grimace came and went on his face.

“What were you doing here?” she wanted to know. It was all so mysterious.

“It is a long story, I’m afraid, and you’re probably better off not knowing.” He reached for her arm and pulled her to her feet. “Come now, we must not dally.”

* * *

Walking was hard with her weakened limbs and Loki’s legs were longer than hers. Honestly she’d never seen such a tall man before.

“It’s going to be dark soon; we’ll need to find a place to sleep,” she said.

He turned around to face her with badly hidden impatience.  
“We don’t have the time to linger.”

“We are walking over old mines; do you know what happens if we step wrong in the dark?”

He seemed to ponder that, pursing his lips in frustration.

“Very well. Let us set up camp for the time being. We’ll be moving again at first daylight.”

“I only have one sleeping bag,” She said as they settled down in a shielded spot. “I didn’t really think about what to do with you once I found you.”

“It matters not,” Loki said and proceeded to make his own bed from what the surroundings provided. Vide was impressed; it clearly wasn’t the first time he’d been out in the wild without accommodations.

She shared her food with him, what little was left, and as the night fell, they curled up to rest.

Only, Vide’s thoughts were racing, keeping her awake. She could make out Loki’s profile in the dark as he was lying on his back, looking at the stars.

“Why did you need my help?” she asked. “To wake up?”

“I wasn’t merely sleeping.” Loki moistened his lips. “My… essence became separated from my physical form and I was unable to successfully meld them on my own.”

“How did that happen?”

Loki delayed with the answer.  
“It’s a long and gruesome story,” he said finally, “and it matters little now.”

“So you’re not going to tell me? Even though I helped you? Risking my life? Okay, I didn’t know that I was going to risk my life but…”

Loki turned on his side to face her with a frustrated grunt.

“I was facing certain death and I had little time to prepare a spell that would recreate my body elsewhere. My hope was that my conscience would unite with it successfully.”

“Your hope? You weren’t sure?”

“Advanced magic has its risks,” he said, “and there was precious little to lose at the time.”

“So why did you choose the burg to recreate it? It’s in the middle of nowhere.”

“Not all places are suitable for such manipulations. The burg itself is of little matter but the ground under it has... certain properties. You could say that it’s infused with magic.”

“Are you saying it used to be a place of sacrifice or something?”

“More a place of worship and its accompanying rituals.”

Vide pondered that. Well, her ancestors had been up to some weird things. 

“So, did they worship you at that place? You really are that Loki, aren’t you?”

“I was not yet born when this place was used, I’m afraid. Now, be quiet and take your rest.”

Warned by his firm tone, she stayed quiet but it took a long time before she managed to fall asleep.


End file.
